Six gin and tonics a day secret to long life

A centenarian who drinks 52 bottles of gin in a year has credited her love of the tipple as the key to her long life.

100-year-old Mabel drinks six gin and tonics a day

Mabel Jackson, who lives in a nursing home in Suffolk, drinks six gin and tonics a day, stocking up with a fresh bottle every week, and only gave up smoking three years ago on doctors’ advice.

“I have two at lunchtime, one at tea time with a biscuit and then three more during the evening while I do my knitting,” she said speaking to the Suffolk Gazette. “I swear the gin keeps me young!”

Far from muddling her mind, Mabel knows exactly how much gin she has drunk over the past 82 years.

“I worked it out one night when I couldn’t get to sleep. Instead of counting sheep, I counted gins. You get around 35 measures in a bottle, so as I always have six a day it takes me around a week to get through a bottle. I know this because I buy one every Wednesday from the Co-Op. On that basis I buy 52 bottles a year, making 4,264 bottles since I started. That’s quite an achievement!”

Drinking at a rate of six gin and tonics a day, Mabel consumes around 6 units per day, 42 units per week. The recommended weekly guideline of alcohol intake for women set by the NHS is just 14 units per week.

“Mum has always been a bit of a character,” said her daughter Mary Whiteside, 74. “She loves a tipple, and to be honest it seems to have preserved her, like a good pickle.”

We’ll cheers to that.

UPDATE: We have since learned that the Suffolk Gazette is in fact a spoof news site. We were fooled! A case of wishful thinking perhaps. If you know a real Mabel, and we are sure there are many, please get in touch!